Celebrity Chatters

We’re still a few weeks from knowing which five comedies and five dramas will contend for the outstanding series awards at this year’s Emmys. But we got closer to narrowing the field last week, when the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the 10 semifinalists in both categories. Between now and July 17, when nominations are revealed, voters will whittle the 10 comedies and 10 dramas down to the five official contenders.

With a few exceptions, I was pretty pleased with the Emmy short lists. But narrowing the picks from 10 to five is another matter altogether. There are a lot of quality shows contending for nominations this year, and no matter what, some of my favorite series will be left out of the running.

So, I’m putting it to you: If you were an Emmy voter, which five comedies and which five dramas would you say deserve to make the finals? Here’s my first crack at it (though I reserve the right to change my mind later): I’d put Friday Night Lights, The Wire, Mad Men, Lost, and Dexter up for Best Drama (though I wouldn’t cry about Damages or House getting in instead), while my comedy list would be Flight of the Conchords, The Office, Pushing Daisies, 30 Rock, and Weeds.

Agree? Disagree? It’s your turn: Which shows would be on your Emmy ballot? For a reminder of the qualifying shows and to make your picks, just

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Welcome to Buzz Brainteaser, the trivia feature on BuzzSugar! Every weekday I’ll test your knowledge about TV shows, music, and movies. If you enter in the correct answer, you win points!

What 1967 song by Tommy James and the Shondells topped the charts many years later when Tiffany covered it?
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• Fox has repeats of Bones and House
• NBC is new with American Gladiators and Nashville Star
• CBS has repeats of The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, and CSI: Miami
• ABC is new with The Bachelorette, The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All, and The Mole
• The CW has repeats of Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill
• MTV is new with Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods
• VH1 has 46664: A Concert for Nelson Mandela
• TLC is new with Jon & Kate Plus 8
• ABC Family is new with The Middleman
• Comedy Central has repeats of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
• Showtime is new with Weeds and Secret Diary of a Call Girl
• Late-night highlights include Julia Roberts and Al Green on a repeat of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, William Shatner, Chelsea Handler, and Newton Faulkner on a of repeat The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC, and Steven Wright on a repeat of Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS

For me, there are two big issues with writer/director Peter Tolan’s feature-length debut: some crazy, disconcerting tonal shifts and a crazy, disconcerting casting choice. There’s also a third, less important issue adding to my perplexity about Finding Amanda which is that Matthew Broderick lifelessly sleepwalks through his role.

Tonally, the movie seems to have no idea what it wants to be and vacillates between screwball comedy, dark humor, high drama, and bleak character study. Sometimes, when you toss those elements into a bag and shake them up, you get something pretty cool. But in this case, it’s not cool. In fact, it reminds me of sitting in a car while someone learns how to drive a stick shift, getting jerked around uncomfortably between gears the entire ride. The gear shifts in this movie are so jarring emotionally that it made me want to get the heck out of that car.

To see why I think Brittany Snow should never, ever play another prostitute,

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One of the more interesting entertainment-related stories I came across this past week is a Salon “Beyond the Multiplex” column about a subject near and dear to my heart: independent film. In the story, writer Andrew O’Hehir looks at the signs that indie films — so hot just a few years ago — are undergoing a pretty serious slide at the box office. Among the evidence:

• Several “independent” divisions of major studios are slashing their workforce or shutting their doors.
• Though Juno was a success last year, none of this year’s indie films have broken through in a big way at the box office.
• The “digital revolution” has led to more films being produced than the market can hold, and many of them aren’t great quality.
• Despite all that, more people than ever are saying they’d rather see independent films than studio fare.

It’s an interesting look at a possibly outdated model for distributing smaller, quirkier films. So, go give it a read, and then come back here and tell me what you think about the state of independent film today.

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I’ve already given you some of my highlights from the week, but today, I wanted to check in with some of the Web’s best TV bloggers to see what they were buzzing about. To see what was making headlines this week, just

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• Fox has The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• NBC has the U.S. Olympic Trials for swimming and is new with Dateline
• CBS is new with Million Dollar Password and has repeats of Cold Case
• ABC has repeats of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Desperate Housewives
• The CW has repeats of Everybody Hates Chris, Aliens in America, The Game, and Girlfriends
• Lifetime is new with Army Wives
• MTV has a repeat of America’s Next Top Model
• VH1 has I Love the New Millennium

After Kanye West took to his computer keyboard to blame the organizers of the Bonnaroo Music Festival for his extremely tardy appearance (4:25 a.m. — dang!), I got to thinking about other bad concert situations. While the folks who paid good money to see Kanye at that festival clearly were not thrilled with the major delays, diva behavior isn’t the only situation that can irritate a concert-goer.

For example, I went to a festival once where the organizers refused to publish a schedule so there was no way to plan the weekend around the acts I most wanted to see. Another peeve: when really tall people have zero perception of their tendency to block the stage from vertically challenged folks (like me!). I’m also often sad when a band won’t perform an encore even when the crowd cheers and chants for what seems like an eternity.

Now it’s your turn to rant. What are some of your biggest pet peeves at concerts?

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